This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Child resistant closures have been used in a wide variety of applications for many years. Traditionally, these child resistant closures, often referred to as CRCs, are used to provide a disengagement feature in the lid of a container or package to prevent access of the contents of the container by a child. To this end, the lid of the container often includes a mechanical engagement system that is normally disengaged to permit the free rotation of an outer member of the lid relative to an inner member of the lid. The outer member of the lid is configured to be grasped by a user and the inner member of the lid is configured to, typically, threadedly engage the opening or finish of the container. The outer member of the lid can, in some traditional designs, include a feature that must be manipulated by an adult user to engage outer and inner closure. This adult-manipulated feature may include various prong devices, spring compression, lifting mechanism or similar device.
Unfortunately, current CRC designs tend to employ adult-manipulated features that are particularly well suited for large containers, such as medicine bottles, cleaning detergent bottles, and the like. However, more recently, there has been a regulatory move to requiring the use of CRCs on containers that are substantially smaller than current containers employing CRCs.
In particular, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has notified the ophthalmic industry of the Commission's plans to require certain product packages that contain at least 0.08 mg of Imidazolines, such as ophthalmic products, will be required to employ child resistant closures on its containers and packaging. Unfortunately, traditional child resistant closures have not been employed in smaller containers, such as, but not limited to, those containers having finish openings less than or equal to about 20 mm.
Furthermore, it appears that traditional child resistant closures, which are used on larger containers, cannot be easily scaled down to work on smaller containers. That is, because many of these traditional child resistant closures employ mechanical or living hinges and/or other mechanical engagement systems, these traditional child resistant closures cannot simply be reduced in size because of the changing in operation of the hinges or engagement systems. What is needed, in order to comply with the potential for new regulations and to provide the market with a viable and reliable child resistant closure, is a child resistant closure that can properly, reliably, and safely operate on or in closures adapted for use with small containers or packages, such as, but not limited to, containers having finish openings less than or equal to about 20 mm. It should be understood that although the aforementioned goal is an object of the present teachings, it should not be regarded as limiting the scope of the present teachings or the use of the closures of the present application. It should be understood that child resistant closures used on small containers can often be up-scaled for use on larger containers; however, child resistant closures used on large containers cannot often be down-scaled for use on smaller containers. However, the teachings of the present application provide a child resistant closure that can be used on containers having finish openings less than or equal to about 20 mm. It should be understood that the present teachings can be used on finish openings greater than 20 mm. Moreover, the present teachings are particularly well-suited for use on ophthalmic or other containers having 18 mm, 15 mm, and 13 mm finishes.